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Preparing baby for pump weaning

My baby turns 1 toward the end of December and I can't properly express how much I'm looking forward to pump weaning, or at least drastically reducing. Keeping up with pumping is a huge source of stress for me both at work and at home.

I want to keep nursing mornings, nights, and weekends until he's at least two. My ideal would be no pumping, but a session during lunch wouldn't be the end of the world.

I understand how to reduce pumping in a way that is healthy and comfortable to me. If he was home with me and I was weaning I'm confident I could navigate us through it intuitively.

I am baffled how to navigate him through it through someone else! What sort of instructions do I give? Do I start reducing/changing what I send?

Are there things I can start doing now to help prepare so it goes more smoothly/quickly? Right now after I leave for work he has a light breakfast with Daddy, and one meal of solids at the sitters before I pick him up.

If things with solids start really picking up which they show signs of doing, would it be bad to reduce the bottles now at a little past 10 months? He would still be nursing at least 4 times a day during the week.

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

How much is baby currently drinking? Do you think baby is being overfed?

I personally would not reduce the bottles now as a way of getting ready for pump weaning. A lot is going to change over the next couple of months--I wouldn't have believed it myself at 10 months, but two months is a long time. My baby is going to be a year, and she actually has, on her own, reduced her daily intake of ounces while ramping up her solids intake.

Anyway, I just think that right now, you should just keep doing what you are doing. You will know where you are with solids, baby's milk needs during the day, etc. as you get closer to that year point.

Apologies for the short responses! I'm usually responding one-handed on my smartphone!

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

Hi mama,

Once baby is a year old, you have three options. One, continue pumping and sending expressed milk to the sitters. Over time, baby will typically start to drink less expressed milk and you can cut down on pumping, following baby's lead. Two, transition baby to animal's milk (cow's milk or goat's milk) at a year and stop pumping altogether. Or, if you are still nursing 3-5 times per 24 hours, you can stop pumping and rely on nursing to provide baby's dairy, and/or give yogurt or cheese in addition if you feel like baby isn't getting enough dairy. But I would wait until a year to make that transition, rather than now at 10 months. Up to a year, breastmilk is still baby's primary form of nutrition, even as solids pick up - I don't think you want to jeopardize your supply before than one year point by cutting back on how much nursing/pumping you are doing. At this point, I don't think you need to start getting baby "ready," other than perhaps introducing sips of water with a meal - if you decide to go the route of no pumping and no animal's milk, for example, then you would give baby water to drink during the day. But for now, I'd concentrate on still doing as much nursing as you can, and pumping as you need to in order to maintain supply and have enough milk for your little one. My baby did decrease the amount of milk she drank during the day towards the end of the first year - she was more on the 1.5 oz/hour end of the spectrum earlier on, and then cut back to the 1 oz/hour end.

It's wonderful that you've been nursing and pumping for 10 months! I totally understand wanting to get rid of the pump - I have been so relieved each time to pump wean. But you are almost there and doing a great job!

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

Originally Posted by @llli*sonogirl

How much is baby currently drinking? Do you think baby is being overfed?

I don't think he is being overfed. Well, maybe on days he eats a ton of solids? No matter how much or how little solids he eats that day he has the same amount of milk. I know when he's home if he has a solids heavy day he nurses less.

In my husbands experience with bottle feeding him he is pretty clear about when he doesn't want anymore from a bottle. He'll stop drinking or purse his little lips together and shake his head. So more than likely not.

bfwmomof3 that is good to know that your little girl reduced on her own some. I wasn't going to forcefully reduce him, but I'm hoping he reduces some on his own in the next month or so. Just a little. Even an ounce or two would make a huge difference in my day.

He's actually already a little bit below the bottom part of the ounce per an hour range. But that's what he eats (and has since 3 months old). I use to send more but he wasn't eating it, and was even sometimes skipping his last bottle.

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

It sounds like you're doing really well, and that he's not being overfed the milk. When you're home, you might want to nurse before offering solids to make sure he is still getting his nursing time in - that helps maintain your daytime supply too, and makes sure that he is still getting the best nutrition - milk - first.

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

Do not reduce your bottles or pumping for the next two months. You want to be the main source of nutrition until AT LEAST a year. Not UP TO a year. And not a year on the the dot. What you do to prepare is you ramp up solids WITHOUT letting up on the amount of milk. And then at the year point you can BEGIN To pump wean. This is not something that happens over night. If you are pumping 3 times a day than Pumpweaning should take you AT LEAST 3 weeks and may take longer. All the while you should be sending milk and around the year point your child may not be using all the milk sent. Anytime that happens freeze it. Any type of freezer supply can be used to lengthen how much longer you send in BM bottles. By the time my son was 14 months old he went to daycare with solid food and a Kleen Canteen with water in it and no bottles. We breastfed on demand when together. We did no cows milk at all but did do yogurt and cheese. He needed no supplementation of cow's milk because we were still nursing 3-5 times in a 24hour period. By the year point my son was participating in 3 solid meals a day plus 2 snacks. We completely were diligent about food and went from two meals a day and one snack to three and one snack between 9& 10 months because that is when we added in poultry. So at that point he could eat full dinners and lunches. The only thing we held off on until the year point was red meat, oranges, tomatoes, strawberries, eggs, peanuts any thing with salt. (So no pickles, bacon or ham before the year point because their livers can' process salt) Other than that we pulled apart our meals and fed him all real solid foods and I made sure to always put between 4&5 things on his plate so that he had choices, felt no pressure and even if he reject half of it would be eating 2 healthy things at every meal. Ramp up your solids. Focus on solids and the thing with pump weaning will be natural and painless. And if you are still nursing while together you don't even have to worry about replacing.

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

Originally Posted by @llli*djs.mom

We completely were diligent about food and went from two meals a day and one snack to three and one snack between 9& 10 months

This is part of where I'm confused, I'm not sure how many meals I should be offering. I get the impression that he should be getting more offerings of solids. Currently he's getting things three times a day. I don't really consider them "meals" and "snacks" because he eats however much he is going to eat.

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

djs.mom is exactly right. I would, at this point, start offering 2-3 meals a day and snacks. If you want to prepare him for no more bottles, then that routine will need to be replaced with a different meal. Keep the meals healthy as you can - lots of veggies and fruits, no processed foods. That will ensure that he is still getting a nutritional meal in place of breastmilk.
I completely get how you feel about the pump. I love to breastfeed and loathe the pump. Don't start thinking about it just yet - that is the easiest way to keep from being to eager to stop pumping. Your baby will slow down on breastmilk. THe fact that he would skip his last bottle may be an indicator that he is slacking off and with an increase in solids that will happen naturally.

My own experience is that my first just stopped asking the sitter for bottles around 12-13 months. I pump weaned around 13.5 months and it took about 2-3 weeks. We still had freezer milk and he wasn't interested in a bottle at all. I added it to a sippy or oatmeal. DS1 was big into solids, so giving him more regular meals was not difficult - he just ate meals with everyone else.

I am at the year mark on the 13th with DS2. He has started scaling back on bottles for about 2-3 weeks now (he has never really been a fan of bottles - only eating a lot of times out of need- sometimes holding out for it straight from the tap). He loves solids and since he has a 3 yr old brother just follows his schedule most times. My plan this time is to pump until he is skipping a bottle, then I will drop a session. Basically follow his lead and only pump if he takes a bottle. If he gets down to 1 bottle a day I will stop pumping since we have some freezer stash to use up.

You have made it this far... a couple more months will fly by. Great job - being a pumping momma is demanding and kudos to all women who go the extra mile for their kiddos!

FT working momma to a 9/11/10 busy boy and 11/13/12 happy little man.
Also wife to hubs since 8/23/08, bonus momma to H (girl) -99 and G (boy)-03

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

Originally Posted by @llli*vibrantnotions

This is part of where I'm confused, I'm not sure how many meals I should be offering. I get the impression that he should be getting more offerings of solids. Currently he's getting things three times a day. I don't really consider them "meals" and "snacks" because he eats however much he is going to eat.

Well the meals should mirror your own so that he gets into the idea of meals as ritual. Breakfast lunch and dinner. And Snacks are between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner. And as far as amount, at that age I used the dessert plates or the plates from a cup and saucer set to set up his 3-5 things. So it's NOT a huge amount. He's still a baby. But it's the idea of sitting in his high chair for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Being part of dinner as a family. And I am very big on no pressure. So if he didn't finish is food in a reasonable amount of time I would simply move his plate from his highchair to the coffee table so that he could graze and eat on the go while playing. Also it helped to put a disposeable table cloth under his highchair. As to not get really stressed out at the amount of mess that COULD be made. Although by avoiding purees as well as any kind of sauced we had much less of this problem than some people do I know. I mean dry cheerios and apple wedges dont' make much of a mess when thrown. My biggest issue was actually with whole pinto beans and rice being thrown. Which is still nothing compared to pureed peas.

Re: Preparing baby for pump weaning

Hi all! I just wanted to say that I signed on today and if I had not found this discussion, I would have posted virtually the exact same question. DS is just over 10 months old and I am SO ready to be done with the pump. While my work environment is not exactly hostile to pumping, there is a lot of passive aggressive tension as I am the only one in the office to have breastfed for more than a few weeks. I am viewed as some sort of weirdo. Also, now that my period started back up, my nipples get extremely sore and pumping has become miserable for 1 or 2 weeks out of the month.
I mentioned to DH yesterday that I was considering doing cow's milk after our son turns 1, and he kind of freaked out about how un-natural that would be; baby cows don't need the same things as baby humans, et c. I actually agree with this, although certainly not vegan we don't do a lot of dairy in our house.
I was really encouraged to read bfwmomof3's post with the 3 options. I hope to nurse at night and on weekends indefinitely, until DS weans himself. My husband feels that if I am going to pump-wean after a year, that it would be better to send him to daycare with formula than with cow's milk. But water and food would be ideal to me.
Thanks for posting this, vibrantnotions, I'm right there with you!